JP2004265062A - Information processing method and device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent the overflow of a receiving event buffer used by a process in a system for performing a cooperative operation by mutual exchange of data by a plurality of processes. <P>SOLUTION: An operated process which receives an operation event transmits a suspend setting for suppressing an event transmission to all processes in a system when executing the operation (T302). After the execution of the operation (T303), a release of the suspend setting is transmitted to the all processes (T304). An operation event which is generated during the suspend setting (T309) is transmitted (T310) after the suspend is released (T308). <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO&NCIPI

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a technology for performing a cooperative operation by a plurality of processes communicating between processes, and particularly to a technology for realizing a reliable cooperative operation when each process has shared data.
[0002]
[Prior art]
As an example of a technique in which a plurality of processes, for example, a plurality of processes distributed in different devices exchange data with each other to perform a cooperative operation, the present applicant has previously described “information processing method and device” regarding a database sharing method. (Japanese Patent Application No. 2002-348726). In the present invention, each process holds a copy of data (shared data) shared by each process.
[0003]
When an operation request for the shared data is generated in a certain process, request information representing the operation request is exchanged between the processes via a network, and based on the received operation request, each process has its own shared data. To update. In this process, the process of issuing an operation request and the process of reflecting the operation request on the shared data, which are included in all processes, operate in parallel.
[0004]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
In the prior invention, a buffer for temporarily storing received operation requests is used to cope with a case where operation requests are generated at intervals shorter than the processing speed of operation requests. A buffer of sufficient size was needed to prevent loss (buffer overflow).
[0005]
As described above, in a device in which a plurality of processes perform a cooperative operation by exchanging data with each other, it has been necessary to design the apparatus so that the receiving buffers used by the processes do not overflow. However, it is difficult to determine the optimum receiving buffer capacity, and there is room for improvement.
[0006]
The present invention has been made in view of such a problem, and an object of the present invention is to realize a highly reliable process by a simple method in a system in which a plurality of processes cooperatively operate using inter-process communication. To provide an information processing method and apparatus for the same.
[0007]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
According to the present invention, the above object is achieved in a system in which each of a plurality of processes holds shared data shared by the plurality of processes, and performs processing on the shared data using communication via an information transmission medium. An information processing method, comprising: when an operation on shared data occurs, an issuing step of transmitting an operation event representing the content of the operation on an information transmission medium; and, upon receiving the operation event, a process corresponding to the operation event. The operation execution step of executing the operation on the shared data owned by itself and the transmission stop notification that notifies all the processes in the system to stop transmitting the new operation event in response to the reception of the operation event Stop notification sending process to send, and release notification to send a stop release notification to all processes in the system to release the stop of sending a new operation event It is achieved by an information processing method characterized by having a signal process.
[0008]
Further, the above object is to provide a system in which each of a plurality of processes holds shared data shared by the plurality of processes and performs processing on the shared data using communication via an information transmission medium. An information processing apparatus capable of executing at least one of the following, when issuing an operation on shared data, issuing means for transmitting an operation event representing the content of the operation on an information transmission medium; An operation executing means for executing a process corresponding to the operation event on the shared data held by itself, and stopping transmission of a new operation event to all processes in the system in response to reception of the operation event. Notification sending means that sends a notification of sending stop, and cancels the stop of sending new operation events to all processes in the system That also achieved by an information processing apparatus characterized by having a release notification transmission means for transmitting a stop release notification.
[0009]
Furthermore, the above-mentioned object is also achieved by a computer program for operating a computer device as the information processing device of the present invention, or a computer-readable storage medium storing the computer program.
[0010]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail based on preferred embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings.
■ (First embodiment)
In the following embodiment, an information processing method according to the present invention is applied to a virtual space sharing system in which a plurality of terminals share a scene database describing the structure and attributes of the virtual space when representing the virtual space in computer graphics. An embodiment will be described. Scene data as shared data included in the scene database is represented by, for example, a scene graph.
[0011]
FIG. 1 schematically shows the entire configuration of the virtual space sharing system according to the present embodiment from the viewpoint of communication between processes. The system has a plurality of processes 102 and 103, which are connected to each other via a communication path 101 and can exchange data. In the present embodiment, one process (for example, 102) among a process group including a plurality of processes 102 and 103 functions as a server process that manages information on a process group included in the system. Hereinafter, the process 102 is also called a server process 102, and the other processes 103 are also called client processes 103.
[0012]
The communication path 101 may be common to all processes as shown in FIG. 1, or a plurality of dedicated communication paths may exist between some processes.
As a hardware configuration for realizing the configuration in FIG. 1, for example, a plurality of terminals communicably connected to each other using a LAN, a public telephone network, or the Internet as the communication path 101 can be exemplified.
[0013]
In this case, at each terminal, one or more of the processes 102 and 103 constituting the process group can operate, and the total number of processes and the total number of terminals do not have to match. The communication path 101 can use any communication medium other than those described above as long as communication can be performed between processes in each terminal.
[0014]
Here, terms used in the following description are defined. Each process in the system performs some "operation" that changes or references the shared data. In the present embodiment, changing or referencing the structure or attribute of the virtual space described in the scene database corresponds to “operation”. The content of the operation is transmitted to another process via the communication path 101, and each process performs a process according to the content of the operation. In addition, starting an operation is referred to as "commanding an operation", data representing the contents of an operation is referred to as an "operation event" or simply "event", and performing processing in accordance with the contents of an operation is referred to as "executing an operation". To
[0015]
Each process has a buffer “received event buffer” for holding received operation events, but the number of events that can be stored in the buffer is limited. In order to prevent a large number of events from arriving within a certain period of time and overflowing the reception event buffer, in the present embodiment, the process executing the operation requires that all processes emit events during the execution of the operation. Suppress.
[0016]
Hereinafter, suppressing the event transmission is referred to as “set suspend” or “suspend”. Also, releasing the suppression of event transmission is referred to as "releasing the suspend". The setting / cancellation of the suspend is also instructed using the event. Therefore, when an event for setting and canceling a suspend is distinguished from other types of events, they are referred to as a “suspend setting event” and a “suspend cancel event”, respectively.
[0017]
Next, a configuration of an information processing apparatus (terminal) in which the processes 102 and 103 can operate in the present system will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 201 denotes a CPU that controls the operation of the entire terminal, 202 denotes a memory that stores programs and data used for the operation of the CPU, 203 denotes a bus that manages data transfer between units constituting the terminal, and 204 denotes a bus 203. An interface with various devices, a communication unit 205 for connecting to the communication path 101, an external storage device 206 such as an HDD for storing programs and data to be read into the CPU, and 207 and 208 A keyboard and mouse as input devices for giving instructions; 209, a display unit for displaying operation results of the process; etc., 210, an external interface (IF) unit for inputting and outputting between the terminal and other external devices It is.
[0018]
Each process is composed of two processes: an operation process for controlling an operation performed by the own process, and a reception event process for processing an operation event transmitted from the own process or another process. FIG. 3 schematically shows a processing procedure after a certain process (“the operated process” in FIG. 3) receives the operation event.
[0019]
First, in the reception event process, an operation event is received in step T301. Next, in step T302, a suspend setting event is transmitted to all processes in order to prevent the process from transmitting an event during processing of the received operation event.
[0020]
After that, an operation corresponding to the operation event received in step T301 is executed (step T303), and when the operation execution is completed, a suspend release event is sent to all processes in order to release suppression of event transmission set for the process. The call is transmitted to the user (procedure T304).
[0021]
Here, in the processing executed in step T303, it is necessary to read a data file of shared data (scene data in a database) to be operated from the external storage device 206. Since the scene data is data describing a virtual space, the capacity may increase. That is, there is a possibility that the time required for reading and operating the data in the procedure T303 may be long, and as a result, the reception event buffer is likely to overflow. Therefore, in the present embodiment, when an operation event that requires reading the file of the scene database is received, the buffer is prevented from overflowing by setting the suspend.
[0022]
On the other hand, in the reception event processing in all processes other than the operated process in the present system, the suspend setting event is received in step T305, and the suspend is set (step T306). When the suspend release event transmitted in step T304 is received (procedure T307), the suspend is released (procedure T308). Therefore, it is impossible to transmit an event from the end of the procedure T306 to the end of the procedure T308. As a result, for example, if an attempt is made to transmit an operation event from the operation processing at the time shown in the procedure T309, the operation is not transmitted because of the suspension, and the suspension of the event is actually transmitted in the procedure T308. It will be the time shown in the procedure T310 later.
[0023]
FIG. 4 shows the flow of the entire process. When the process is started, a file in which data to be operated is recorded in step S401 is read from an external device via an external storage device (206 in FIG. 2) or an external IF unit (210 in FIG. 2). Performs a series of initializations required for process operation. Next, a network connection with another process is established (step S402).
[0024]
At this time, the server process 102 allocates a process ID for uniquely identifying the process in the system to the client process 103 that has established the connection, and assigns a process ID of the newly connected process to all processes in the system. Notify the process ID. Each process newly creates flag data called a “suspend flag” in association with the notified process ID, and sets it to OFF. The suspended flag is prepared for each process existing in the system, and indicates whether or not the corresponding process is in a state where the suspend is set.
[0025]
In the present embodiment, data exchange between any two processes is performed by one-to-one socket communication using TCP / IP (Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol). Therefore, if the total number of processes is N, each process has at least N-1 socket communication paths. However, the configuration of the communication path is not limited to this, and any configuration can be used as long as data can be logically exchanged between any two processes. For example, a configuration is possible in which a client process 103 other than the server process 102 establishes a communication path with the server process 102, and communication between the client processes 103 always goes through the server process 102.
[0026]
Subsequently, in step S403, the process branches to execute the operation process and the reception event process in parallel in this process, and an operation processing thread (step S404) for processing an operation command and a process for processing the reception event. Of the receiving event processing thread (step S406). The operation processing and the reception event processing thread will be described later in detail. The operation processing and reception event processing threads determine in step S405 and step S407 whether or not an end instruction has been issued. If there is no end instruction, the process returns to step S404 and step S406 to repeatedly process the operation instruction and reception event. On the other hand, if there is a termination instruction, the two threads are integrated in step S408, the network connection between the processes is disconnected (step S409), and all the processing is terminated.
[0027]
Here, the operation processing of step S404 performed by the operation processing thread of FIG. 4 will be described in detail with reference to the flowchart of FIG.
First, in step S501, the contents of the operation command are input. Next, an operation event corresponding to the operation command input in step S501 is generated (step S502). In step S503, the suspended flag is referred to, and it is determined whether the transmission of the event is suppressed by any process. If the event transmission is suppressed, the process returns to step S503. If the event transmission is not suppressed, the process proceeds to step S504, in which the operation event generated in step S502 is transmitted to all processes including the own process. finish.
[0028]
Next, the reception event processing of step S406 performed by the reception event processing thread of FIG. 4 will be described in detail with reference to the flowchart of FIG.
The reception event is received by an event communication unit (not shown), and is input to a reception event buffer set in advance as an area of a storage device such as the memory 202. In step S601, the reception event buffer is searched. In a succeeding step S602, it is determined whether or not a reception event has been input to the reception event buffer. If there is a reception event, the process proceeds to step S603. On the other hand, if it is determined that there is no reception event, the process ends.
[0029]
In step S603, a suspend setting event is transmitted to all processes. Note that the suspend setting event includes the ID of the process that transmits the suspend setting event. Subsequently, of the reception events stored in the reception event buffer, the operation content specified by the first event is analyzed and executed (step S604). In particular, when the event to be executed is a suspend setting event, the suspending flag corresponding to the process ID included in the event is set to ON. Conversely, if the event to be executed is a suspend release event, the suspending flag corresponding to the process ID included in the event is set to OFF. After the execution of the event, in step S605, an event for instructing cancellation of the suspension is transmitted to all processes, and the process ends.
[0030]
By performing the processing described above, it is possible to set so that all the processes do not emit an event while any of the processes operating in the system is performing an operation. As a result, the risk that the reception event buffer overflows due to the arrival of a large number of events during the execution of the operation and the operation is not reliably executed can be greatly reduced.
[0031]
■ (Second embodiment)
In the first embodiment, a suspend is always set when an operation on shared data is performed. If the capacity of the shared data to be operated is likely to be large, such as scene data that represents a virtual space, a remarkable buffer overflow prevention effect can be obtained with simple processing, but all processes are affected during the suspend setting. Therefore, it is more preferable that the number of times of suspend setting itself can be reduced. Therefore, the present embodiment is characterized in that it is determined whether to suspend based on a certain criterion.
[0032]
Here, a criterion for judging whether to suspend or not to set in the present embodiment will be described. This criterion is to suspend when the time margin until the reception event buffer is saturated is less than a certain value and when executing a predetermined type of event.
[0033]
The expression for this criterion is
S = f × Th (R (t), B) (Equation 1)
It can be expressed as. If the value S of this equation is 1, suspend is set, and if it is 0, suspend is not performed.
[0034]
Here, “f” is a flag determined for each type of event (hereinafter referred to as “suspend target flag”). In advance, f = 1 is set when suspending for each type of event, and f = 0 when suspending is not performed. Have been. "Th (a, b)" is a function for performing a binarization process, and returns 1 if the first argument a is less than the second argument b, and returns 0 if not. “R (t)” is a time until a time at which a suspend setting event must be transmitted at a certain time t in order to prevent saturation of the reception event buffer, and “B” is a positive value in units of time. Is a constant.
[0035]
In the present embodiment, R (t) in Equation 1 is defined by Equation 2 below.
R (t) = n (t) / (r (t) -p (t))-α (t) (Equation 2)
In Equation 2, n is the number of empty slots in the reception buffer, r is the number of events arriving per unit time, that is, the event arrival speed, and p is the number of events that have completed execution per unit time, ie, the event processing speed. α is the time from when the suspend setting event transmission process is activated to when the event is processed and the suspend is set (hereinafter, referred to as “suspend setting delay time”). “(T)” indicates a value at each time t. The “slot” indicates a storage area in the reception event buffer where individual events are stored. Therefore, when the number of empty slots is 10, the number of remaining events that can be received is 10.
[0036]
Next, the processing flow of the process according to the present embodiment will be described. In the present embodiment, the processing flow of the entire process is the same as that of the first embodiment (FIG. 4) except for the contents of initialization (step S401) and reception event processing (step S406).
[0037]
In the present embodiment, the initialization process (step S401) holds initial values of the suspend target flag, the event arrival speed, the event processing speed, and the suspend setting delay time in addition to the initialization process performed in the first embodiment. The data file to be read is read from an external storage device (for example, 206 in FIG. 2) and is set for each parameter.
[0038]
In addition to the method of reading these parameters from a file, the method of setting these parameters in advance in a program representing the processing content, the method of inputting them from another device via an external IF unit (210 in FIG. 2), the system It is needless to say that the user can make an arbitrary setting such as an interactive setting.
[0039]
The reception event processing (corresponding to step S406 in FIG. 4) in the present embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.
When the reception event process is started, in step S701, information indicating the process start time is obtained from a clock existing inside the terminal, a time server existing on the system, or the like. In step S702, the reception event buffer is searched. In a succeeding step S703, it is determined whether or not a reception event has been input to the reception event buffer. If there is a reception event, the process proceeds to step S704. On the other hand, if it is determined that there is no reception event, the process ends.
[0040]
In step S704, the arrival speed of the event is calculated, and then the value of the above-described equation 1 is calculated (step S705). Note that the event arrival speed in step S704 can be calculated based on the difference from the current time information at the time of execution of step S704 in the previous reception event processing, by storing the current time information at the time of execution. . However, the calculation method is not limited to this, and can be calculated by any statistical method.
[0041]
The remaining parameters used to obtain the value of Expression 1 in step S705, that is, the number n of empty slots in the reception buffer, the event processing speed p, and the suspend setting delay time α are stored in, for example, the memory 202 or the like, as described later. It is assumed that the update process is performed at a predetermined cycle or timing for each parameter. The value of the suspend target flag f can be obtained by using the event type information included in the received event and referring to a table in which the type of the event and the value of the suspend target flag are set at the time of initialization.
[0042]
In the next step S706, if S = 1, that is, if it is determined to execute the suspend, the process proceeds to step S707, and if not (S = 0), the process proceeds to step S712. In step 707, a suspend setting event is transmitted to all processes. Subsequently, of the events stored in the reception buffer, the operation content specified by the first event is analyzed and executed (step S708).
[0043]
Next, in step S709, the suspend setting delay time is calculated and updated. In the present embodiment, information on the transmission time is also added to the suspend setting event transmitted in step S707, and the difference between the transmission time and the time when step S709 is executed is defined as the suspend setting delay time. That is, in the present embodiment, it is assumed that the delay time of the suspend setting event transmitted by the own process is substantially equal to the delay time of the suspend setting event transmitted by another process, and that the times of all terminals match. I assume. In order to match the time between the terminals configuring the system according to the present embodiment, for example, NTP (Network Time Protocol) can be used.
[0044]
Further, in step S710, a suspend release event is transmitted to all processes. In step S711, the event processing speed is calculated and updated, and then the process ends. In the present embodiment, the event processing speed is calculated based on information on the time acquired in step S701 and the time at which step S711 is executed. However, the calculation method is not limited to this, and can be calculated by any statistical method.
[0045]
On the other hand, if it is determined in step S706 that S = 0, an event is executed in step S712 in the same manner as in step S708, the event processing speed information is updated in step S711, and the process ends.
[0046]
As described above, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to set the suspend according to the specific condition. Therefore, it is possible to suppress the occurrence of the suspend setting while preventing the overflow of the reception buffer.
[0047]
■ (Third embodiment)
In the second embodiment, the event arrival speed r, the event processing speed p, and the suspend setting delay time α among the parameters used to determine whether to perform the suspend are updated each time the reception event process is performed. Any one or more of these parameters may be fixed to a preset value.
[0048]
The fixed value is described in a file and read in the initialization step (step S401), a method of setting in advance in a program representing the processing contents, and input from another device via the external IF unit (210 in FIG. 2). It can be set by any method, such as a method, a method of setting interactively by a user of the system.
[0049]
■ (Fourth embodiment)
In the second and third embodiments, it is determined whether or not to suspend using all of the suspend target flag f, the number of empty slots in the reception buffer n, the event arrival speed r, the event processing speed p, and the suspend setting delay time α. However, the determination may be made based on one or more of these.
[0050]
For example, the determination can be made based only on the type of the reception event (that is, only the value of the suspend target flag f) or based on only the value of the number n of empty slots in the reception buffer.
[0051]
■ (Fifth embodiment)
It is possible to configure so as to perform the selective suspend setting by a method different from the second to fourth embodiments. The present embodiment is characterized in that the suspend is set only when the event execution does not end within a certain time after the start of the event execution.
[0052]
In the following description, the time from the start of event execution to the transmission of the suspend setting event is “suspend standby time”, the time to transmit the suspend setting event is “timeout time”, and the fact that the event execution does not end by the timeout time is described as “ Timeout. "
[0053]
A part of the reception event processing (corresponding to step S406 in FIG. 4) according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 8 shows a procedure when no timeout occurs. In this case, the operation event is received (procedure T801) and the content of the operation is executed (procedure T802). However, since the operation execution is completed before the timeout time, the operation is not timed out and the suspend is not set. In addition, since the suspension is not performed, the suspension is not released.
[0054]
On the other hand, in the case of FIG. 9, the timeout event is reached (timeout occurs) while the operation event received in the procedure T901 is executed (procedure T902), so that the suspend setting event is transmitted in the procedure T904. Then, after the execution of the operation is completed, the suspend is released (procedure T903).
[0055]
FIG. 10 shows a processing flow of the reception event processing (corresponding to step S406 in FIG. 4) in the present embodiment. In FIG. 10, the same processes as those in FIG. 7 that describe the reception event process according to the second embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant description will be omitted. At the start of the processing shown in FIG. 10, a timer processing end flag described later is set to OFF.
[0056]
In step S1005, the value R (t) of the above equation 2 is calculated, and this is set as the suspend standby time. In the following step S1006, a timeout time is calculated from the current time and the suspend standby time, and a timer process is started using the timeout time as an argument. Details of the timer process will be described later. The timer processing can be operated in parallel as another thread of the reception event processing by the process branch as performed in step S403 in FIG.
[0057]
On the receiving event processing side, as described in the second embodiment, in steps S708 and S709, execution of the event and update processing of the suspend setting delay time α are performed, and in step S1009, the timer processing is instructed to end. Is set to ON. This ends the timer processing thread.
[0058]
In step S1010, the suspended flag is referred to. If the suspended flag corresponding to the own process is set to ON (that is, if the event execution in step S708 times out and the suspend setting is performed in the timer process), the process proceeds to step S1010. In S710, if it is set to OFF, the process proceeds to step SS711, and the process ends.
[0059]
Next, the flow of the timer process executed in the present embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The timer process operates in parallel with the reception event process as described above. When the processing is started, it is determined in step S1101 whether or not the timer processing is ON by referring to the timer processing end flag. If it is determined to be ON, the process ends, and if it is not ON, the process proceeds to step S1102. In step S1102, the current time is referred to and compared with the timeout time (step S1103). If the current time is equal to or longer than the timeout time (if timeout occurs), the process proceeds to step S1104; otherwise, the process returns to step S1101. In step S1104, a suspend setting event is transmitted, and the process ends.
[0060]
As described above, according to the present embodiment, the suspend can be set adaptively only when the time required for processing the event is long and there is a risk that the reception event buffer is saturated.
[0061]
■ (Sixth embodiment)
In the fifth embodiment, as in the third embodiment, one or more of the event arrival speed, the event processing speed, and the suspend setting delay time may be fixed to a preset value.
[0062]
The fixed value is described in a file and read in the initialization step (step S401), a method of setting in advance in a program representing the processing content, another method via an input / output unit (210 in FIG. 2) with the outside of the terminal. It can be set by any method such as a method of inputting from the device, a method of interactively setting by a user of the system, and the like.
[0063]
■ (Seventh embodiment)
Also in the fifth and sixth embodiments, as described in the fourth embodiment, any one of the suspend target flag, the number of empty slots in the reception buffer, the event arrival speed, the event processing speed, and the suspend setting delay time Alternatively, the suspend standby time may be calculated based on a plurality of times.
For example, the suspend standby time may be calculated based only on the number n of empty slots in the reception buffer.
[0064]
■ (Eighth embodiment)
In the second to seventh embodiments, the event arrival speed r, the event processing speed p, and the suspend setting delay time α are calculated and used at a certain time t (however, the third embodiment and the sixth embodiment). Except for the case where a fixed value is used in the embodiment). However, other types of statistical numerical values such as an average value, a maximum value, and a minimum value may be used as these parameters.
[0065]
For example, if the event arrival speed r uses the maximum value, the event processing speed p uses the minimum value, and the suspend setting delay time α uses the maximum value, the risk of overflowing the reception buffer can be further reduced.
[0066]
■ (Ninth embodiment)
In the first to eighth embodiments, the data to be operated by each process is the virtual space scene database shared between the processes, but the data to be operated is data describing any other contents. Needless to say,
[0067]
[Other embodiments]
In the above-described embodiment, only the information processing apparatus including one device has been described. However, equivalent functions may be realized by a system including a plurality of devices.
[0068]
In addition, a software program for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments is supplied to a system or an apparatus having a computer capable of executing the program directly from a recording medium or by using wired / wireless communication. The present invention includes a case where a computer achieves the same function by executing the supplied program.
[0069]
Therefore, the program code itself supplied and installed in the computer to implement the functional processing of the present invention by the computer also implements the present invention. That is, the present invention includes the computer program itself for implementing the functional processing of the present invention.
[0070]
In this case, any form of the program, such as an object code, a program executed by an interpreter, and script data to be supplied to the OS, may be used as long as the program has a function.
[0071]
As a recording medium for supplying the program, for example, a magnetic recording medium such as a flexible disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape, an MO, a CD-ROM, a CD-R, a CD-RW, a DVD-ROM, a DVD-R, a DVD- There are optical / magneto-optical storage media such as RW, and nonvolatile semiconductor memories.
[0072]
As a method for supplying a program using wired / wireless communication, a computer program itself that forms the present invention on a server on a computer network, or a computer that forms the present invention on a client computer, such as a compressed file having an automatic installation function, etc. A method of storing a data file (program data file) that can be a program and downloading the program data file to a connected client computer may be used. In this case, the program data file can be divided into a plurality of segment files, and the segment files can be arranged on different servers.
[0073]
That is, the present invention also includes a server device that allows a plurality of users to download a program data file for implementing the functional processing of the present invention on a computer.
[0074]
Further, the program of the present invention is encrypted, stored in a storage medium such as a CD-ROM and distributed to users, and key information for decrypting the encryption for a user who satisfies predetermined conditions is transmitted to, for example, a homepage via the Internet. It is also possible to realize the program by supplying it by downloading it from, and using the key information to execute an encrypted program and install it on a computer.
[0075]
The functions of the above-described embodiments are implemented when the computer executes the read program, and an OS or the like running on the computer executes a part of the actual processing based on the instructions of the program. Alternatively, all the operations are performed, and the functions of the above-described embodiments can be realized by the processing.
[0076]
Further, after the program read from the recording medium is written into a memory provided in a function expansion board inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, the function expansion board or the The CPU or the like provided in the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing, and the functions of the above-described embodiments can also be realized by the processing.
[0077]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, in a system in which a plurality of processes cooperate based on data exchange, by limiting the transmission of event information based on various conditions, overflow of a reception buffer used by the processes. Can be prevented or suppressed, and highly reliable processing can be realized by a simple method.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a process configuration of an information processing system to which the present invention can be applied.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a hardware configuration example of an information processing apparatus capable of constructing the information processing system of FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an information processing procedure according to the first embodiment.
FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating overall processing of a process according to the embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an operation process according to the first embodiment.
FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a reception event process according to the first embodiment.
FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a reception event process according to the second embodiment.
FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a processing procedure of a reception event process when a timeout has not occurred in a fifth embodiment.
FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a processing procedure of a reception event process when a timeout occurs in the fifth embodiment.
FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating a reception event process according to the fifth embodiment.
FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a timer process according to a fifth embodiment.

Claims (10)

An information processing method in a system in which each of a plurality of processes holds shared data shared by the plurality of processes and uses communication via an information transmission medium to perform processing on the shared data,
When an operation on the shared data has occurred, an issuing step of transmitting an operation event representing the content of the operation on the information transmission medium,
Upon receiving the operation event, an operation execution step of executing a process corresponding to the operation event on the shared data owned by itself.
In response to receiving the operation event, to all processes in the system, a stop notification transmission step of transmitting a transmission stop notification that notifies the user to stop transmitting the new operation event,
A release notification transmitting step of transmitting a stop release notification for releasing the transmission stop of the new operation event to all processes in the system. Further, when the transmission stop notification is received, a setting step of setting the own process to a state in which transmission of an operation event related to an operation on the shared data that has occurred until the reception of the stop release notification is received is provided. The information processing method according to claim 1, wherein The stop notification transmitting step, when receiving the operation event, transmits the transmission stop notification,
3. The information processing method according to claim 1, wherein the release notification transmission step transmits the stop release notification after the operation execution step performs a process corresponding to the operation event. 4. Each of the plurality of processes temporarily stores the received operation event in buffer means,
The stop notification sending step includes the following steps: the free space of the buffer means, the type of operation to be executed by the operation execution step, the number of operation events received within a predetermined time, and the operation execution step processed within a predetermined time. Determining whether or not to perform the transmission notification based on at least one of the number of the operation events and the time from when the transmission stop notification is transmitted to when the setting step is performed in the own process. 3. The information processing method according to claim 2, wherein The information processing method according to claim 1, wherein, in the stop notification transmitting step, the transmission stop notification is transmitted when a predetermined time elapses from a point in time when the operation execution step is started. Each of the plurality of processes temporarily stores the received operation event in buffer means,
The stop notification sending step includes the following steps: the free space of the buffer means, the type of operation to be executed by the operation execution step, the number of operation events received within a predetermined time, and the operation execution step processed within a predetermined time. 6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the predetermined time is determined based on at least one of the number of the operation events and a time from when the transmission stop notification is transmitted to when the setting step is performed in the own process. The described information processing method. The shared data is data describing the structure and attributes of a virtual space,
7. The information processing method according to claim 1, wherein the operation execution step reads the shared data and performs the operation on the read data. 8. In a system in which each of a plurality of processes holds shared data shared by the plurality of processes and performs processing on the shared data using communication via an information transmission medium, at least one of the plurality of processes may be executed. An executable information processing device,
Issuance means for transmitting, when an operation on the shared data has occurred, an operation event indicating the content of the operation on the information transmission medium,
Upon receiving the operation event, an operation execution unit that executes a process corresponding to the operation event on the shared data owned by itself.
In response to receiving the operation event, a stop notification transmission unit that transmits a transmission stop notification that notifies all processes in the system to stop transmitting the new operation event,
An information processing apparatus, comprising: a release notification transmitting unit that transmits a stop release notification for releasing transmission stoppage of the new operation event to all processes in the system. A computer program for causing a computer device to operate as the information processing device according to claim 7. A computer-readable storage medium storing the computer program according to claim 8.

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